What a wonderful turnout we had for last Saturday's Responsible US Global Engagement call! 184 chapter leaders and activists of CGS and our co-sponsoring organizations took time out on a Saturday to phone in and hear about our priorities for the beginning of the Obama administration, as well as those of some other organizations that are working on the same issues. Most importantly, we went over some specific ways CGS members in every state can help achieve these foreign policy goals. We want make sure our goals become priorities for the Obama administration and that our constituents play a role in drawing up policies on the United Nations, human rights, climate change and arms control. If you are a Citizens for Global Solutions activist, you'll find the information in your January Partners for Global Change Toolkit. Others who would like to get involved can find out how by emailing Laura Hendrick at Outreach@globalsolutions.org.

Sharon Kelly of Human Rights First led off our call with a great assessment of the prospects for achieving some important human rights goals during the next few months. HRF will be working to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center and ensure that the detainees are moved to prisons where they can have regular access to attorneys. HRF also wants to shut down the military tribunal system and try the detainees in the regular court system. Another goal they're optimistic about achieving is increasing accountability for US contractors overseas; they've drawn up a detailed blueprint for this which you can find on their website. Finally, they're asking the new president to issue an executive order prohibiting torture.

Next, Katherine Silverthorne of E3G talked about the upcoming goals on climate change. We should be able to make some major progress on slowing climate change, since the Obama administration has already made it clear that the environment is going to be a key issue for them. Katherine talked about some of the steps they're taking to get the US involved in the next meeting of the UN conference on Climate Change, scheduled for Copenhagen later this year. It will be the last government-level meeting before the Kyoto agreement needs to be renewed, so it'll be a very important gathering.

John Isaacs of the Council for a Liveable World gave us an update on arms control issues. The Council is calling on the administration to resume talks with Russia on a new arms control agreement that would significantly cut U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles, and strengthen the monitoring provisions of the START treaty. The Council also wants Congress to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and it's pressing the administration to bring more countries on board so the treaty can go into effect.

Finally, Todd Shelton of InterAction briefed us on their goals; increasing resources for agencies involved in development and diplomacy; putting a development professional in charge of U.S. development programs and ensuring that that the National Security Council staff includes a senior staffer dedicated to development; ensuring that international talks on the global financial crisis include representatives of developing countries, and that decisions on managing the crisis take account of critical development needs; and lobbying Congress to grant at least as much money for the International Affairs Budget as the current administration has requested.

That's a lot to work toward, but we have a lot of manpower in the combined forces of these organizations. If we all get involved, we can do it. The next step is to go to the Partners Toolkit and find out how you can help. Our new director of Community Outreach, Laura Hendrick, gave us a great list of things we can do to help us reach our global objectives. Again, check your Partners for Global Change Toolkit, or contact Laura at Outreach@globalsolutions.org

I want to thank our co-sponsoring organzations that participated on Saturday's call: 20/20 Vision, the United Nations Association , Women's Action for New Directions, and Americans for Informed Democracy . On Wednesday, we'll be part of a group of organizations releasing a letter to the Obama administration formally calling for the adoption of these goals. Watch for the press coverage of that.